Jeryl
A variant spelling of the masculine name Jerrell, meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 1,330 living Americans carry the first name Jeryl. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 56.2% of registrations being female. The average person named Jeryl today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jeryl births was 1955 (168 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jeryl. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Jeryl sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 257,710 Americans
Peak year
1955
168 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2023 SSA rank
#8,978
Tracked since 1924
Census
Jeryl in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,492 people with the first name Jeryl, which placed it at #9,345 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#9,345
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,492 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jeryl
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jeryl is White at 74.4%. The next largest groups are Black (18.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Jeryl described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Jeryl at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.4% · 1,110
- Black or African American18.0% · 268
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 47
- Two or more races1.9% · 29
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 28
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 10
Gender
Gender distribution for Jeryl
Jeryl is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,831 total registrations, 802 (43.8%) were male and 1,029 (56.2%) were female.
Jeryl as a male name
- Ranked #11,450 in 2023
- 6 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1952 (23 births)
Jeryl as a female name
- Ranked #8,978 in 1978
- 6 female births in 1978
- Peak: 1955 (155 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jeryl on both sides of the split. Of the 1,484 people counted with this name, 606 were male (40.8%) and 878 were female (59.2%).
Popularity
Jeryl: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jeryl from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 742 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jeryl by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Jeryl during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jeryls live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Jeryl, while Georgia, Minnesota, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 31 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jeryl
The given name Jeryl is believed to have originated from the Hebrew language. It is a variant or diminutive form of the biblical name Jeremiah, which means "exalted by God" or "appointed by God." The name Jeremiah is derived from the Hebrew words "Yarah" meaning "to throw or cast," and "Yah" which is a shortened form of the Hebrew name for God, "Yahweh."
The name Jeryl is not as widely used as its parent name Jeremiah, but it has been recorded in various historical records and texts. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jeryl can be found in the 16th century English parish records, particularly in the counties of Devon and Somerset.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Jeryl. One of the earliest recorded was Jeryl Whitaker (1599-1654), an English Puritan minister and author who served as a chaplain in the English Civil War. Another notable Jeryl was Jeryl Claremont (1726-1798), a British politician and member of Parliament for the borough of Taunton.
In the 19th century, Jeryl Blackwell (1821-1893) was a prominent American businessman and philanthropist who founded the Blackwell Institute, one of the first schools for African Americans in Virginia. Jeryl Worthington (1879-1962) was a British explorer and writer who documented his travels through Asia and Africa in several books.
More recently, Jeryl Brusseau (1925-2010) was an American artist and educator known for her abstract expressionist paintings and her work as a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
While the name Jeryl is not as common as other variants of the name Jeremiah, it has a rich historical lineage and has been borne by individuals from various backgrounds and professions throughout the centuries.
People
Jeryl + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jeryl as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jeryl: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jeryl?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,330 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jeryl going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 257,710 US residents.
Is Jeryl a common name?
We classify Jeryl as "Rare". It ranks above 91.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,831 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jeryl most popular?
The single biggest year for Jeryl was 1955, when 168 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jeryl is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jeryl in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,492 people with the name Jeryl, or 0.49 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,345 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Jeryl in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Jeryl?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jeryl on both sides of the split. Of the 1,484 people counted with this name, 606 were male (40.8%) and 878 were female (59.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Jeryl?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jeryl is White at 74.4%. The next largest groups are Black (18.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Jeryl most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jeryl in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.4% (1,110 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Jeryl in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jeryl a female name?
Yes, 56.2% of people registered as Jeryl in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Jeryl still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jeryl in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Jeryl can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Jeryl?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.